Monday, November 30, 2009

I promised I'd get back to Christmas today, so I'm getting waaaay back, to Christmas 2008. I made this advent box last year and posted it to Splitcoast, but I didn't have my blog then, so I figured I'd post it here now. First let me say.... I did not come up with this box design! A wonderful lady from my ATC club first taught me how to make this box in a single layer. As far as the stackable design, there are several versions floating around the web. I originally saw THIS box on Ella's site (Ella's Craftroom), and this year found a nice little tutorial HERE by Hermine (Hermine's Place). I used the large kitchen match boxes (not the little ones) so that I could stuff each drawer with goodies for three kiddos - my two nephews and niece. This was LOTS of fun, but very time-consuming, because I made drawer pulls for each drawer (the simple way... use a circle punch and punch out half circles, big enough to fit a fingertip in to open the drawer), and I covered every surface with patterned paper (the simple way..... just brush some distress ink or paint on each drawer front, and decorate only the larger panels). I will leave you with a bunch of pictures and a little bit more rambling :). If you have any questions at all regarding sources, just email me! I won't bore you all with a list of supplies 20 pages long ;).

Here's a side with one of my favorite Santa stamps, and some Cuttlebug cut snow- flakes.

This side is very matchy-matchy, and the only "blue" side. Luckily, I don't think my little kiddos will notice the incon- sistency.

I kept the embel- lishments on the top of the box relatively flat, so there would be no worries about smooshing it when stored away for the offseason.

Some detail shots.... I used lots of different items for drawer pulls: pipe cleaners, ribbon, buttons, charms, bells, etc. You just need to make sure that someone's fingers can actually get hold of the pull, so don't adhere your buttons/charms flat onto the drawer. I created some lift with an extra button or ribbon knot BEHIND the main bigger button/charm that I wanted to use as the pull.

Here's an open drawer, showing some candies inside. I used a bell and a snowflake brad on the bottom two drawers. Note how I stacked a few buttons behind the brad so that it was like a knob. This brad had very long prongs, and I glued the ends on the inside of the box, and covered them with glue and a scrap of paper to reinforce it. For the bell, I threaded wire through the back slot, then poked it through the drawer, and through the holes of a button on the inside, then twisted the excess wire and tucked it behind the button (again, to reinforce the pull so that it doesn't pull right through the drawer).

Last picture.... for about half of the drawers, I just stuffed them with candy for the whole family to enjoy. For the other half, I put in tiny toys, labeled with tiny little tags with the kids' names. Here is a drawer with three bunches of metallic crayons. Underneath (not showing), I made up little blank booklets using black craft paper, for use with the metallic crayons.

This year, I sent up some more candy and little toys for mom and dad to stuff the box with. As a little added addition, I copied a nice, simple version of the Christmas Story from one of my favorite kids' books (The Christmas Star), and divided it into 24 segments. I then printed it out, and punched out each segment using a tag punch. I stamped the corresponding number of each segment onto each tag, and threaded red and green ribbons through the top. Their mama can now add a little tag to each box, and as they read a new part of the Christmas story each day, they can hang up the tag on the tree, or a bulletin board, fridge, etc.

Whew, long post. Thanks for sticking with me, and happy holiday crafting!

I know, I know - don't yell at me, LOL!! I just discovered this Pink Persimmon sketch challenge, and I don't have any Pink Persimmon Christmas stamps (yet!), so I had to jump ahead a little and think Valentine's. Don't worry, I'll get back to Christmas soon :). Anyway, this card uses this sketch for the challenge:

I used Pink Persimmon's Key to My Heart set, along with some My Mind's Eye paper, and some vintage trim and Foof-a-la buttons. I sketched the heart myself and cut it out with pinking shears (no pun intended, LOL! - it's very late - sorry, I'm punchy!). A simple little card that came together quickly.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Stamp of the Month time has come a little early for the December selection at Cornish Heritage Farms. It's this adorable Santa, which I particularly love for a bunch of reasons. I love that he is surrounded by music, I love that he is a wonderful size for both cards and ornaments, AND... I got to design this card, which you'll get instructions for when you order the stamp. :) To make this very fun card, you'll need the Jolly Holly Santa Collage stamp, along with the Swirling Snowflakes backgrounder - a very versatile stamp you'll use again and again. Just have a little white embossing powder on hand, a snippet of ribbon, a button, a few markers or pencils, and some cardstock, and you'll be churning out those holiday cards!

The best part... you'll get 20% off this stamp in the month of December. (And by the way, you can get it cling mounted or wood mounted... I always link to the cling mounted because it's the least expensive and easiest to store, and it's what I use myself.)

Hope you had a great weekend! I've been doing way too much eating and watching sports, and way too little crafting! Time to catch up on all those fun challenges I missed last week, LOL!

Friday, November 27, 2009

Are you running out of reasons to stamp this month?? Now that you think I've lost my mind, I'll explain (LOL!!)... it's that time again - Gingersnap Creations has listed our "Reasons to Stamp" for the month of December. I certainly never knew that December was "Bingo Month," but it did inspire me to create something a little different for my Christmas decor. For this quicky little project, I scanned a vintage bingo card and printed it out on cardstock. Then I just reached for what was already out on my very messy craft table. The Santa image is from Crafty Secrets (the Christmas postcard kit), as is the hanger. I used some red felt snowflakes from Stampin' Up, some red pom pom trim that I got at JoAnne's, and a few other little bits that were just lying around. A fun, no-stress project for a doorway or little nook.

Hope all my fellow Americans had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Onwards to Christmas...... :)

Edited to add: I've had a request for my source for the vintage bingo card.... I happened to get this one at a local scrapbook store in Buffalo, NY, called Buffalo Stamps and Stuff. For those of you not in western NY, you can find them on Etsy as well. If anyone would just like a copy, here is my scan. (please note: I have no idea of the original manufacturer of this card, and so I don't know if the rights are under copyright. Please enjoy for your personal use only. :))

Monday, November 23, 2009

This month our ATC club decided to swap ornaments instead of ATCs! Since I can never settle on one favorite image, I made four each of three different designs. I found the plain wooden star ornaments at JoAnne's (only 60 cents), sanded them, painted them ivory, and distressed the edges with some Ranger Distress Ink in brown corduroy. For the center, I scanned the music for Silent Night taken from a vintage hymnal, cut it into stars, stamped a flourish (from Stampington) onto them, and glued them inside the inset portion of the star. The Christmas images I used are from Crafty Secrets and Dover Designs. Then I used one of my new favorite products - glow-in-the-dark glitter from Martha Stewart! I glued it all around the raised outside border of the star - it will look so pretty once all the lights are turned off for the evening! I embellished each star with some cuttings from Christmas floral picks, vintage buttons, ribbon, etc. This was such a fun project, and in the end I don't think it took me any longer than ATCs would have taken. I'm sooooo looking forward to seeing what the other ladies came up with!

Have a happy Monday - and remember, crafting is the only remedy for a Monday! :)

Friday, November 20, 2009

Cornish Heritage Farms releases it's new Scrapblock today, Calendar Year. This stamp has so many possibilities! For this card, I was going for an old-time postcard look, using K and Co. patterned paper, some Hero Arts Art Flowers that I colored with my Copics, and some die cuts a friend gave me. The sentiment is from Vintage Christmas Expressions. For more great ideas, check out the Gallery at CHF.

We're starting a busy weekend of hockey today.... a USA hockey training event tonight (at the home ice of the Carolina Hurricanes), then practice, game, another practice.... plus, my daughter wants to get some figure skating practice in. It's gonna be coooooold and icy, even here in NC, LOL! Have a great Friday everyone!

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Lots to get to today, so first up, my tag for the Tag Tuesday #26 challenge. Louise is starting a "Colors of Christmas" series (how fun is that?), and this week the colors are pink, brown, and burgundy - luscious!! Pop on over to see Louise's tag, which is soooo pretty, and all the other gals' work.

Next up... a big THANK YOU!!!! to Louise, of Tag Tuesday and Kard Krazy fame! I was the lucky winner of some fabulous one-of-a-kind blog candy oozing with vintage paper goodness. Check it out:

Louise, you rock!! I will have weeks of fun with this! :)

And finally, that sneak peek I promised.... sheesh, this one sneaked up on me big time! Tomorrow, Cornish Heritage Farms will release a new Scrapblock (those 6 x 6 inch stamps) called Calendar Year. This one is soooo versatile (I know, I keep saying that about these stamps, but it's true!). This is one that you scrapbookers in particular will like, because you can cut it up and use it for journaling blocks. I'm thinking of using the "December" for my December Daily album. Anyway, enough talk... here's the peek:

This card uses the Calendar Year Scrapblock, along with the Sweet Bee set from The Rummage Bin.

Thanks for sticking with me through this long post! Hope you're having a great week!

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Gingersnap Creations has posted the new color challenge today, and it is..... Monochromatic! Make a creation in any color at all, but just that one color family. (I'm assuming a little added neutral is okay here, or else I've, *gulp* got it all wrong, LOL!! Seriously, though, the Gingersnappers are a NO STRESS group.... be creative, do whatever you'd like, just keep it basically monochromatic.) For my card, I wanted texture to be the star, since I was only using one color family. So for the base layer, I've used a Paper Temptress ruched paper called Sky Blue Crepe. It looks like crepe paper, but has the weight of cardstock - very cool. I stamped the Stampington & Co. image onto blue mulberry paper, and layered it over a strip of vintage text. Then I just added some hydrangea petals from a big box floral, and found a sentiment that I liked from my vintage text page and called it done.

Gingersnap Creations is being sponsored this month by the Paper Temptress, so you know what that means.... blog candy!! Enter any of the GC challenges this month (you can see them all in the left sidebar at Gingersnap Creations) and you'll have a chance at your pick of four gorgeous paper selections from the Paper Temptress. So why not make one of those holiday cards you need in a monochromatic scheme, and suddenly you're multitasking, LOL! :) Have fun!

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Well, it's finally here - release day over at Cornish Heritage Farms, for two fabulous vintage baby sets: Baby Dear (from the Rummage Bin Line) and Vintage Baby Expressions (from the Mona Lisa Moments line). Here's a little pretty in pink that I made using these stamps sets, some K & Company paper, and a little felt heart that I traced and cut myself. For some wonderful samples from the design team, you can check out the gallery HERE and HERE.

I'll leave you with one more sample that could be a Mother's Day Card for a new mama.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

A short post tonight to give you another sneak peek of Cornish Heritage Farms' "Baby Dear" and "Vintage Baby Expressions" sets, which will be available on November 17. Once again I've paired these sweet images with Cosmo Cricket's Everafter Crafting Kit... it's supposed to be a wedding kit, but the wonderful soft colors are a perfect fit for baby cards as well. (There are even some darling vintage children images in the kit- go figure!) I've done a soft take on a red-white-and-blue color scheme, coloring the image with Copics.

Friday, November 13, 2009

My 10-year-old daughter has commandeered my ice skates! I just couldn't keep buying skates fast enough to fit her quickly-growing feet, and so she finally stole my size 7 Riedells, and I'm out of luck, LOL!! She loves them and has announced that I can't have them back... I'm all right with that, she's now a better skater than I am. :) With all the skating my family does, this is one of my absolute favorite new releases from Cornish Heritage Farms - Skate Scene from the Shady Tree Studio Line. So much fun to color... you can use it with a holiday scheme, match it to your little one's woolies, use it for a winter scrapbook page. The sentiment is from Christmas Expressions, and is embossed in white.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Oh, Baby!! On November 17, Cornish Heritage Farms is coming out with two fabulous vintage baby sets that'll knock your socks off.... a gorgeous set of images and sentiments from The Rummage Bin line called "Baby Dear," along with an extra set of vintage-style sentiments (with a few adorable images, too) from the Mona Lisa Moments line called Vintage Baby Expressions. Where were these when I was having babies??? LOL! Seriously, if you are expecting... Congratulations!.... and, you'll want to check these out. And although I won't be having any more little bundles of joy (*sigh*), I'm excited to own these sets just because I'll always have a fab baby card ready for any new little life that comes along. :)

This is my first sneak peek of the sets, but I'll have more throughout the week (and some of the other gals on the CHF design team are peeking them, too... Laura has a fabulous quick-and-easy birth announcement idea).

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

We've had a very busy weekend that has carried on into the week! I've finally managed to get crafting a little bit, and made this goofy little tag for the Tag Tuesday #25 challenge, which is to use a photo on your tag. I just LOVED this photo when I found it, and thought it would be perfect for a birthday tag, coupled with a paper pieced portion of a Stampington & Co. stamp called Party Hat. To add a little interest, I used buttons to echo the dots and blots in the paper, AND to play along with another challenge over at Gingersnap Creations today, which is to use buttons on a project. There's some blog candy up for grabs over at Gingersnap Creations, too.... you get to chose from a fabulous assortment of paper from Paper Temptress. Buttons and paper, ahh, bliss!

Thanks for looking! For folks in the USA, hope you have a peaceful and thoughtful Veteran's Day.

Friday, November 6, 2009

One of my childhood Christmas memories is of my uncle's train set under the tree. He would set up a scene with all of the important buildings in the town (you know, my grandmother's house, my house, my aunt's house... you get the idea, LOL!) and have his trains running through it. The train would disappear behind the tree, reappear to go by my house, through a tunnel, etc. Do you have a model train expert in the family? Or just a boy who loves trains? You may want to check out this new stamp set from Cornish Heritage Farms, called Train Silhouette from the B&O Railroad line. I really didn't expect to have so much fun with this set, but once I started stamping, I realized all of the possibilities. The card above pairs an image from Train Silhouette with some great paper by Graphic 45... it actually has little ads for toy trains! (the link is HERE if you want to see; it's from their Christmas Past collection) The sentiment is from CHF's Night Before Christmas set. I think I know where I'm sending this card.... :)

And now, for something completely different..... how about a little boy's birthday card? This one is going to my nephew:

I stamped the solid locomotive repeatedly in primary colors. I didn't do anything special to line them up, just eyeballed it. (I'm sure he won't notice the imperfections!)

Okay, one more and I'll stop..... I just couldn't resist going for a vintage ephemera theme with this set:

Seriously, this set is so much fun, even for the non-train enthusiast. Sometimes I make cards and I'm not sure whom they'll go to.... not so with this set! Go figure.

Check out the CHF Creative Blog for more great ideas from the designer team (Tracy made a card that doesn't even have a train on it! How versatile is that?) And I love this one by Laura, too - so fresh and fun.

AND... For the antique car fan in your life, you can check out a new set from the GM line called “You Drive Me Crazy." We can seriously take care of the men in the family with these sets. Isn't a little macho in stampland refreshing for a change? :)

Have a great weekend... I'm off with my daughter to Winston-Salem for her NC Elementary Honors Chorus concert, so if I'm slow to respond, it's 'cuz I'm away from my computer.... I'll catch up with ya'll on Monday!

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Nuts, I'm a day late with this, but it just would not photograph!! That's what I get for making an acetate tag, I guess, LOL! Anyway, this is my entry for this week's Tag Tuesday Challenge at Kard Krazy, which is to make an entirely paperless tag. What a fun challenge for us papercrafters, eh? So I used acetate for the base, stamped with the Swirling Snowflakes backgrounder from CHF in white StazOn. The Santa image is by Artistic Outpost, stamped on Claudine Hellmuth's Sticky Back Canvas using Memento dye ink in London Fog. I used some Vintage Photo to color him up a bit (Distress Ink). I think the fuzzy brown and white trim is May Arts, but I'm not sure (I could cuddle that stuff all day, it's so soft! :) ). The lace is vintage, the rhinestones are from Kaiser, the posy is from Prima, and the rust-colored petals are off a bloom from a big box store (love to ravage those blooms for my flower stash!). Thanks, Louise, for another fun challenge! And congrats to Louise on all of those Stampington publications (it's the Louise show lately, I tell ya - fabulous work!)

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

How is that for a goofy blog entry title? I'm talking about a new stamp set, though - very fun, very retro, kinda punny.... Domestic Love from the All Things Considered (ATC) line at Cornish Heritage Farms. For this card, I cut a piece of patterned paper slightly smaller than my card front. I crinkled one half of it, then adhered the smooth half to the right side of the card (I did this first to make sure that half would line up neatly). Then I smooshed and crinkled and wrinkled some more, put some adhesive on the card base, and pushed down the crinkled half of the paper. I inked up the sentiment with a marker so that I could split it to go with the wrinkled/smooth paper sides. I added a little color to the iron image with Copics, and embellished with ribbon and buttons.

About Me

I love papercrafting, stamping, watercoloring, coloring with markers, and just messing around with art supplies. I'm a former scientific/medical writer from Pennsylvania, and a wanna-be artist and world traveler. Thanks for stopping by.

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All site content is the copyright work of Jean Franks Beck unless otherwise stated. You may take inspiration from this site for your personal use only. Neither the project designs, photography, nor the text may be copied for any commercial use, including selling of projects, competition entry, or any submission for publication. Disclaimer: Some of the products used on my blog may have been provided by the vendor mentioned in my posts.Thanks.

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